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Food Aid and Sustainable Agriculture

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GEO 212: Assignment | Food Aid and Sustainable Agriculture are Suitable Alternatives to Agricultural Problems. | K.C. Hodson (213504006) |

The oxford dictionary (www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/agriculture) defines agriculture as “The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.” This being said, in order to assess the validity of the statement “Food aid and sustainable agriculture are suitable alternatives to agricultural problems”, agricultural problems need to be identified, food aid and sustainable agriculture need to be defined, and prospects and constraints need to be reviewed.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) State of Food Insecurity Report (2006), “…Over 850 million people worldwide suffer from hunger and malnutrition, including 820 million in developing countries.” As the climate changes and population increases, so more agricultural problems arise. As noted by Castree, Dermeritt. Liverman and Rhoads (2009), some of these problems include availability of land space, high maintenance of soils (for example, depletion of nutrients in the soil, erodability of the soil), diverse and distressing weather conditions (for example, droughts, floods, natural disasters), as well as waiting for the growing season to come .
Figure 1: Flood damage to a crop (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a0LZbhwHyoY/UM8Ea2rdRhI/AAAAAAAAAAo/o0GrzxolC9Q/s1600/Agriculture+Problems.jpg).

Food aid is given or lent by one country to another. It is mainly given to the poorer third world countries or to a country after it has suffered a natural disaster. Food aid given to poorer countries has always been thought to have both prospects and constraints. As noted by the World Poverty and Economic Development Organisation (2012), food aid constraints can include it halting agricultural development, used for political gain by the host or donor governments, and local farmers food prices can decrease due to the cheaper food imports. There are also many prospects that food aid can bring. These include, but are not limited to, lower food prices due to the selling of food aid, lower prices to the donor country due to the host country’s surplus, and host governments can use the food aid to reduce the amount of imported food, thereby saving on import costs (Singer, Wood, Jengings (1987)).
Figure 2: Food aid supplied by the United States of America to a poorer, barren third world country (http://www.humanosphere.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FoodAidSudan.jpg).

Sustainable agriculture is agriculture maintained at a certain level. In order to achieve and maintain this level, three factors need to be addressed. These include environmental, social, and economic issues, as noted by Khor (2002). Sustainable agriculture rarely has constraints. There are therefore many prospects. Some of these prospects, according to Kassie and Zikhali (2009), include environmental sustainability – for example, recycling, maintaining the land, soil and water resources, and avoiding harmful fertilizers and chemicals, social sustainability – for example, using as much available labour as possible to create jobs in communities, specifically rural communities, and economic sustainability – for example, using environmental and social sustainability to yield more crops and better quality crops, adding to the country’s economy.
With this said, it is important to keep in mind that “Sustainable agriculture is a journey, not a destination.” (Kassie and Zikhali (2009)).

Figure 3: A diagram showing the three factors that affect sustainable agriculture (http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/sustainable_agri/susu_agri_index.png).

Figure 4: An example of sustainable agriculture – a green house (http://the-back-40.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iStock_000019845705XSmall.jpg).

White, Renner and Novak state that “Unless man can produce food faster than babies, the best efforts to raise the level of living of the people concerned would appear to be doomed to failure.”
They are quite accurate with their statement in light of agricultural problems. There is however a temporary plan that can be made by means of food aid to the countries in need. Sustainable agriculture is also an important option when it comes to agricultural problems. While food aid is viable alternative for agricultural problems, it can certainly help relieve some food distribution issues. Sustainable agriculture on the other hand is completely viable as it brings many solutions, both short- and long-term, to agricultural problems.

Bibliography: * Castree, N., Demeritt, D., Liverman, D., Rhoads, B. (2009) A Companion to Environmental Geography. United Kingdom: Wiley – Blackwell. * Food and Agriculture Organisation (2006) State of Food Insecurity. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation. * Kassie, M., Zikhali, P. (2009) Brief on Sustainable Agriculture. Sweden: Sustainable Land Management and Agricultural Practices in Africa: Bridging the Gap between Research and Farmers. * Khor, M. (2002) Sustainable Agriculture – The Ecological, Social and Economical Issues. Johannesburg: World Summit on Sustainable Development. * Singer, H.W., Wood, J., Jenging, T. (1987) Food Aid: The Challenge and the Opportunity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * White, C.L., Renner, G.T., Novak, R.T. (1958) Essentials of College Geography. New York: Appleton – Century- Crofts, Inc. * World Poverty and Economic Development (2012) Foreign Aid, Food Aid and Small Loans (Microfinance).United States: World Poverty and Economic Development. * www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/agriculture
[Accessed: 1 May 2014]

Bibliography for figures: * Figure 1 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/a0LZbhwHyoY/UM8Ea2rdRhI/AAAAAAAAAAo/o0GrzxolC9Q/s1600/Agriculture+Problems.jpg [Accessed: 4 May 2014] * Figure 2 http://www.humanosphere.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/06/FoodAidSudan.jpg [Accessed: 4 May 2014] * Figure 3 http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/sustainable_agri/susu_agri_index.png [Accessed: 4 May 2014] * Figure 4 http://the-back-40.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iStock_000019845705XSmall.jpg [Accessed: 4 May 2014]

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